Series 1 reflections

The New Series
 

 It’s all over now until Christmas.  So time to sum up the long-awaited new series.

The short episodes mean that the plot is compressed. A direct result of this is the loss of the  ‘Doctor is suspected of causing the trouble/locked up’ bit that usually occupies the second half of episode one and the repeated going to and fro/running up and down corridors that takes up the rest of episode two and episode three. This is not much of a problem. We have also lost any real attempt to explain the resolution of the plot, which may be more of a problem.

On the other hand, the characters are well developed.  Even the minor characters, such as the plumber in The End of the World, are people rather than ciphers. But this becomes a bit excessive in the case of Rose. Giving her a family background is one thing, but returning home repeatedly in order to hear Jackie whinging is going too far. Or rather not far enough.   I for one would rather see an alien planet occasionally than see Rose’s mother again.  Ever.

Rose herself is an excellent companion.  Once she becomes used to the idea of aliens, she takes the adventures in her stride, without twisting her ankle once.  On several occasions she, rather than the Doctor, brings about the resolution of the problem.

Which brings me to the weakness of the series.  This Doctor is certainly alien and manic enough, but is he heroic enough? He seems to need rescuing rather a lot of the time.  In both the first and last episodes it is Rose’s action that saves the day.  Even Charles Dickens and Rose’s father seem to have more of a clue. I can only assume that the Time War must have been very traumatic.  So it is all the more amazing that a 19-year old from South London can apparently defeat a massive Dalek army using nothing more than a tow truck and a TARDIS.  As I said above, there is often little attempt to explain the resolution of the plot.

On the whole, though, I think that Russell T Davies has taken the right decision to leave out the technobabble. We are left with believable characters, entertaining dialogue and amazing effects.  What does it matter that The End of the World doesn’t really have a plot at all? It looks great. The TARDIS is, er, fantastic, and the aliens are so…..alien.  Some corners have been cut during the series of course, this is the BBC. The Satellite 5 set is reused, and the Dalek invasion of earth takes place off-screen. But it doesn’t really matter as the way in which the individual episodes fit together to form a whole makes this work dramatically.  The second visit to Satellite 5 allows the Doctor to confront the consequences of his actions in The Long Game, just as in the previous episode, Boom Town, he had to face the consequences of his actions in World War Three. The focus of The Parting of the Ways is on the Doctor’s reaction to the Dalek threat, made all the more poignant by the side of him that was revealed in Dalek, not on the invasion of our planet thousands of years in the future.

So as a whole, the series worked well.  Though it was just a little bit on the camp side.  Well, quite a lot on the camp side actually, especially after Captain Jack joined the crew. Even Jonathan Ross commented on this on his Radio 2 Saturday morning show, so I am not imagining it.  On the other hand, for most of the run it was going out sandwiched between Graham Norton and Julian Clary (oo-er) so it fits right in to Saturday nights. And the fact that the series was mentioned at all in an interview between Ross and actress Kathy Burk is a sign of its success.

Perhaps the best thing about the new series is that as a result of both Russell T Davies’ inspired production and the BBC’s decision to promote it properly, Doctor Who is once again popular Saturday night entertainment.  I’m constantly being surprised by the number of my colleagues who are watching it avidly. 

I’m definitely looking forward to Christmas, for the first time since Santa stopped calling.